Donna Bailey has lived in Raleigh for over 25 years and has been a neighborhood advocate for much of that time. She served as President of the University Park Neighborhood Association and has also been Chair of the Hillsborough-Wade Citizens Advisory Council (CAC). Donna has been very active in educating the public on what is going on within the city and making sure that resident’s voices are heard. Donna is currently a member of the city’s Community Engagement Board. Donna spoke to City Council November 14, 2023:
I would like to invite you and the public to come to the Livable Raleigh’s public event on November 16 – to learn the facts about how Mary-Ann Baldwin and her cronies have turned Raleigh’s equitable Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) promises into just another Baldwin money grab – and to learn what we can do to fix it.
Before the Baldwin Council, the city made these promises:
1. In 2016 Raleigh’s Planning Director promised Raleigh’s BRT would serve “some of Raleigh’s lowest-wealth communities .. [and] ensure that these investments benefit rather than displace households and families.”
2. At the New Bern BRT Kickoff Meeting, a senior city planner pledged the city would “make sure the BRT benefits … are shared equitably … so that existing residents of the New Bern corridor … are going to be there to benefit”
3. And Raleigh created an Equitable Development Around Transit (EDAT) Guidebook that promised the city would “guide future growth around transit … to reverse displacement”
Before the Baldwin Council came to power, the EDAT Guidebook promised that 3-story-zoned buildings along New Bern Avenue could get a 50% height bonus for including affordable units.
But when Baldwin and her cronies came to power, they decided instead to upzone all 744 parcels along New Bern Avenue to between 5 and 20 stories, eliminating any incentive to produce affordable units, while at the same time driving up rents and taxes, and forcing low-wealth families out of the corridor.
Congratulations Baldwin and cronies! If allowed to go through, your money-grubbing version of Smart Growth will blow up New Bern Avenue and go down in history as the biggest ever Urban Renewal displacement of low-wealth families in the state, surpassing even the Durham Freeway’s destruction of the Black Hayti Neighborhood.
Come to Livable Raleigh’s event on Nov 16 and learn how Raleigh can reinstate the BRT promises we made before the Baldwin Council came to power.
Please do not allow Mary-Ann to further destroy the Raleigh we know and love. The quality of life has greatly deteriorated under her leadership. We see successful businesses leaving downtown because of crime and other issues.
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